exempt from all jurisdiction (save in cases affecting
land, life and limb) other than that of the Stannary Courts, and
peculiar laws were enacted in the Stannary parliaments (see STANNARIES).
For many centuries a tax on the tin, after smelting, was paid to the
earls and dukes of Cornwall. The smelted blocks were carried to certain
towns to be coined, that is, stamped with the duchy seal before they
could be sold. By an act of 1838 the dues payable on the coinage of tin
were abolished, and a compensation was awarded to the duchy instead of
them. The Cornish miners are an intelligent and independent body, and
the assistance of a Cornishman has been found necessary to the
successful development of mining in many parts of the world, while many
miners have emigrated from Cornwall to more remunerative fields abroad.
The industry has suffered from periods of depression, as before the
accession of Queen Elizabeth, who introduced miners from Germany to
resuscitate it; and in modern times the shallow workings, from which tin
could be easily "streamed," have become practically exhausted. The
deeper workings to which the miners must needs have recourse naturally
render production more costly, and the competition of foreign mines has
been detrimental. The result is that the industry is comparatively less
prosperous than formerly, and employs far fewer of the inhabitants.
However, in the district of Camborne, Carn Brea, Illogan and Redruth,
and near St Just in the extreme west, the mines are still active, while
there are others of less importance elsewhere, as near Callington in the
south-east. And when, as in 1906, circumstances affecting the production
of foreign mines cause a rise in the price of tin, the Cornish mines
enjoy a period of greater prosperity; the result being the recent
reopening of many of the mines which had been closed for twenty years.
The largest tin-mine is that of Dolcoath near Camborne. Copper is
extracted at St Just and at Carn Brea; but the output has decreased much
further than that of tin. As it lies deeper in the earth, and
consequently could not be "streamed" for, it was almost unnoticed in the
county until the end of the 15th century, and little attention was paid
to it until the last years of the 17th. No mine seems to have been
worked exclusively for copper before the year 1770; and up to that time
the casual produce had been bought by Bristol merchants, to their great
gain, at rates from L2:10s. to L